don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

I have the 7D II, as well as the 7D. For me, at has been an excellent camera. In my opinion, you can't beat its 10 fps, coupled with its fast focusing capabilities. I use it for both shooting soccer and softball, coupled with a Tamron 18-270 mm lens, which is pretty much on the camera full time. Although it has not bothered me, I have read here and elsewhere that there other cameras that are better in low light situations.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Delighted with it. Purchased a used 7D, sold it and then bought the 7D II about 2 years ago. I frequently use it for sports/action. Coupled with my Canon 70 - 200 f/2.8 II and outdoors, tele extender 2X III, it's a terrific combo. The auto focus system is fantastic. I don't think you can go wrong, particularly for action venues.
Mark

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

There are thousands and thousands of great images made with the 7dii, but I might venture to say there are not many good low light images. Others might disagree with me, but it does not perform well at iso's above 800, at least compared to full frame bodies. Just my opinion.

Psergel Loc: New Mexico

Very much in agreement

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I don't mean to disagree with you, but I've attached a couple of images I shot at Ringling Bros Circus. Canon 7D MII, ISO 6400/f3.5/1/1000 (Canon 70 - 200 mm, f/2.8 II) Now maybe the venue is not considered, by your definition, low light. Not sure, but I think the results are decent.
Mark
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imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

The 80D has a better sensor - if that matters.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I used a pair of 7DII beginning last year and find them very reliable and good performing cameras. It's a nearly ideal camera for wildlife, birding and the sports/action shooting I do a lot (a bit over 60,000 images with the two 7DII last year). The only Canon "better" for action/sports would be the 1DX-series models... but those are full frame so also would need to be used with much more expensive telephotos that are a lot bigger, heavier and make me less mobile. For this reason, I prefer crop sensor cameras for a lot of things.

I've used my 7DII's with around fifteen or twenty different lenses and haven't seen any problems at all (at least none related to the cameras). I've used EF-S 10-22mm, EF 24-70mm, EF 70-200/4 and EF 70-200/2.8, EF 300/4 lenses a lot with it. Also got EF 100-400 Mark II midway through last year and use it quite often on 7DII. And I've used Tamron SP 60mm macro sometimes as well. Other lenses have all been fine, too... just haven't had need to use them a lot... yet.

Image quality is excellent. For low light it rivals the full frame 5D Mark II I've been using for that purpose for some years (a 5DIV upgrade is probably next on my to-do list)... and at high ISO the 7DII are an improvement on the pair of original 7D I shot with for about five years (around 250,000 images). I have used all three models as high as ISO 6400. At that high ISO the 7DII's images aren't "noise free" by any means, but they are quite usable for most purposes. And they require less post-processing "help" than original 7D's high ISO images did. 1DX-series 6D, 5DIII, 5DIV are all likely a little better high ISO/low light cameras.

80D is a viable alternative. It's not got quite as fast frame rate, isn't rated as high for durability or as well sealed for weather resistance, and doesn't have quite as customizable/high performance auto focus as 7DII... But 80D is no slouch, by any means. It has a one generation newer, 20% higher resolution sensor with slightly greater dynamic range. And it's unique AF system has a whole lot more "f8 capable" points than 7DII (27 versus 1), so if using teleconverters a lot, might be a good choice. The articulated LCD of 80D can be handy for some things, too... 7DII's screen is fixed (which might be better for weather resistance and durability). If using Live View a lot... both cameras have Canon's much improved Dual Pixel autofocus that makes it far more usable... but that might be even a little more useful on a screen that can be tilted for high and low angle shots. The 80D's is a Touch Screen. The 7DII's isn't.

Depending upon the cameras you've used in the past, the 7DII's 65-point AF system might be easy or difficult to learn to use well. It's basically an upgraded and expanded version of the original 7D's 19-point and is highly customizable and "tweakable". That's great when it's used right... But it also can get you into a world of trouble if used wrong!

I usually use 7DII AF pretty simply... Single Point/Manual selected. That requires me to work harder to keep the AF point right where I want camera and lens to focus, but still is the best way to insure a high percentage of accurately focused shots (I probably see fewer than 2 or 3% missed focus... and I bet at least half of those are my errors, not the cameras'.) In certain situations I sometimes use Zone Focus (Large and Small) and Expansion Points (4-point and 8-point). And I find Spot Focus useful at times (that's a higher precision form of Single Point/Manual, though slightly slower). I can't recall ever using All Points/Auto with 7DII (or any other Canon model, for that matter).

80D doesn't have all these AF patterns... It offers All Points, Single Point (like all Canon), Large Zone and Zone Focus. 80D doesn't have Expansion Points or Spot Focus modes.

I mostly use fast-focusing USM lenses and with them have had no problem with 7DII's AF tracking moving subjects. 7DII and the original 7D are both similar to 1D-series cameras, with a separate, discrete chip running the AF (while dual processors handle the images). Most other Canon models that I'm aware of use a single processor to handle both AF and images (I think 5DS models use dual processors, but still don't handle AF separately).

The 7DII's metering system is also improved over the original 7D's. I still use some ETTR with it, but find I don't need to set quite as much.

As to high ISO performance, here's an ISO 16000 (yes, that's sixteen thousand) test shot with 7DII...



Above was shot about 8 feet from a small window and 10 or 12 feet from a single 60 watt light bulb. It was shot RAW with care to avoid underexposure, converted in Lightroom with default settings except for a slight boost in contrast (noise reduction at default settings). Sure, there's some noise in the image. But IMO it's pretty well controlled and image is fully usable at Internet sizes and resolutions. Probably printable up to about 8x10/8x12, too.

My only minor complaints about the 7DII are that the AF-On, * buttons are a little small and close together, harder to differentiate by touch, compared to earlier models I've used a lot. Or maybe it's that my thumb is too big. It matters to me because I use BBF virtually all the time. Took some getting used to.... I've had some missed focus and unintentional AE locks. Other controls are excellent... expecially the more direct access to changing the AF pattern and the secondary joystick on the vertical/battery grip.

The "abridged" printed user manual is another minor complaint of mine... Canon includes a 150 page manual with the camera. But the "real" manual is around 500 pages... Plus another 50 page manual specifically for the AF system. When I bought my cameras there weren't many guide books, either. There are more now. (Any time I get a new model of camera, I always get a guide book for it, to help shorten the learning curve.)

TREBORB

I own the canon 7d ( not the mark ii). I love it . I also have owned Canon 5 series. The main reason is the 7D series burst speed.I find that doing fast bursts i can capture a perfect shot more often, Even in Portraiture especially with children. they are always moving around, so you are more likely to capture that perfect moment. Shooting sports shots as well. you will discard most shots but that is okay, with the modern memory cards, it is no loss. Even Cartier Bresson used that system to capture that perfect moment, even shooting film. Matching your camera and lenses with your major photo interest should be your first priority when choosing your equipment. Maybe this is good reason to have multiple bodies if you shoot very different subject matter. My other camera is the Rebel 6TS. Here i love the ability to adjust the screen , especially for table top and some other pics.
So capture that perfect moment in time
robert

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I'd say that you aren't really going to fine and "cons" about this camera. You'll find plenty of "pros". Yes, they can improve on it like they keep doing and will continue to do. The recent improvements on the 5D series, namely the 5D Mark IV, are superb. So the 7D II does have room for improvement. I'm sure they will upsize the sensor to more megapixels, include WiFi, maybe a touch screen, maybe increase the fps again, perhaps they will put a CFast memory card slot in it, 86 the pop up flash etc. But we all know that eventually it will have all those things.

rstrick2 Loc: Beverly Hills, FL

I use mine with a Sigma 150-600 sport lens. it works well for me. I use for nature and wildlife photography. it has 65 point focusing that is good but I seldom use it but it there if I need it. many of my photos are in low light and I push the ISO to 3200 to get a good shutter speed. there is some noise but it get taken care of in LR. here is a link I found
https://photographylife.com/recommended-canon-7d-mark-ii-settings I got screwed up and wasn't sure where I was so I found and got all my setting back on track. I could have went to reset all setting.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

I'm not saying the camera will not perform at higher ISO. But I am really anal about noise, as I was in film days graduating from 35mm pan atomic x (if I recall correctly) to 4x5 sheet film, all because of grain. So, I do a lot of bird photography and seek as much feather detail as possible. As such, I was never really happy with the results of the 7dii at higher ISO compared to what I was getting with my full frame bodies. I guess I suffer from "noise aversion". My problem.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I know what you mean... really missed ISO (actually ASA) 25 and 32 B&W films... though eventually Fuji Neopan Acros 100 pretty much matched them. I did enjoy using Tri-X and HP5 at times though, despite or maybe because of the grain... sometimes even pushing them to 800.

Velvia 50 and Ektachrome 100 VS were my usual slide films... Ektachrome 200 was the fastest I would use. Any higher speed slide film was too grainy and contrasty, so I'd switch to color negs if I ever needed .

I don't know about you, but I think a lot of people just look at their digital images way, way too large on their computer monitors. "Pixel peeping", in other words. An 18 or 20MP image straight out of camera and displayed at 100% on a modern flat panel is like making a five foot wide by three foot high print, then viewing it from 18 or 20" away! I'm guilty of that sometimes myself. 100% or higher might be useful when doing careful pixel-level retouching, but it's unrealistically large for most "real world" uses. By the time an image is considerably down-sized for printing or online display, noise is much less of a problem than people tend to think. 35% or 25% is often a more realistic viewing magnification.

Exceptions would be if very large prints and/or heavy cropping were being done, of course. And poor exposure or incorrect post-processing can make a little otherwise acceptable noise a lot worse.

But in general I think that people are overly concerned about noise (and some other things). Sometimes you just have to accept things and work with them. After all, I don't see the world in 4K resolution with my eyes... or even HD, for that matter.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

probably are pribably

Yeh, you are probably right. As I said I probably have issues re noise. But, still, I much prefer the iq on my 1dx and 5div than I did results from my (sold) 7dii.

eSteve Loc: Newark, DE

I have the 7dMKII that I have used a great deal for birding, wildlife and sports. I paired it mostly with EF 100-400mm L MKI, EF-S 15-85mm and EF-S 10-22mm. Have also used with EF 24-105mm L and EF 100mm f2.8 L macro. I have never had an issue with this camera. I highly recommend it for wildlife and action sports photography.

TREBORB

The issue of noise or grain. I guess if you want ultimate resolution, you will want a microscope. If what you want is to capture a moment or event in time, ultimate resolution is not the most critical. issue.
So ultimately, you have to decide what type of photography you wish to pursue. Then match your equipment to that desire. There is no harm in owning multiple bodies and lenses. However first see if you have enough shelf space, and if married ask your wife.
Enjoy your life and photography